If Moorad in, CEO likely to leave

Major league executives expect CEO Sandy Alderson to leave the Padres at some point this year if Jeff Moorad takes over the front office.

Moorad has said he well regards Alderson, but major league executives doubt Alderson will stay beyond 2009 if Moorad comes aboard because the two are used to doing similar jobs.

As general partner of the Diamondbacks, Moorad reportedly was active in negotiations for prominent players such as Eric Byrnes and Russ Ortiz, and his duties were comparable to Alderson's present duties.

Alderson, who will attend major league ownership meetings next week, has declined comment on ongoing talks that would set up a phased-in sale of the Padres to a Moorad-led group. Alderson is in the final year of his contract and doesn't have a stake in Padres ownership.

When he hired Alderson from the commissioner's office in April 2005 – less than four years before ordering the current payroll slashing of some 40 percent – Moores talked of Alderson leading the Padres to stunning heights.

“My expectations for Sandy are modest. I want him to turn this into the best baseball franchise in America,” Moores said of Alderson, whose tenure as an A's executive coincided with three consecutive World Series from 1988-90.

Alderson's legacy with the Padres includes two first-place finishes in the National League West, a near-playoff berth in 2007, but also no series victories in the playoffs and a 99-defeat, last-place finish in 2008.

Indisputably, Alderson hugely increased Padres investments in the farm system, notably via a raft of extra draft picks, an $8 million facility in the Dominican Republic and more than $5.2 million in bonuses to foreign amateurs in 2008. And the absence of suspect player contracts on the books undoubtedly makes the Padres more attractive to a Moorad group willing to pay more than $400 million for Padres.

The Padres' three baseball-operations executives next in line are each under contract for at least two years: Paul DePodesta, who reports to Alderson, is contract-bound through 2011; General Manager Kevin Towers, whose pact runs through 2010; and Grady Fuson, funded through 2010 as director of scouting and development.

The club's financial obligations to them are considerable. DePodesta's salary was about $500,000 per year before the three-year extension from Alderson. Among GMs, Towers' salary is in the top 10.

A Padre at the end

Expect that Trevor Hoffman, now a Brewer, eventually will return to the Padres for a ceremony that allows him to retire as a Padre. “Hells Bells,” accompanied by Trevor Time, likely will ring again at Petco Park, if only ceremoniously.

And if Hoffman enters the Hall of Fame, he would do so as a Padre. “I'd be proud to,” he said Thursday.